The incredible clockwork teasmade on the cover is just one of over 100 bizarre and ingenious gadgets in Maurice Collins' collection from the complexity of mechanical fruit peelers and a hand-pumped automatic shaver to the simplicity of the 'toe socks' of the 1920s which claimed to cut hosiery bills by 80 per cent. If you thought burglar alarms were a modern invention, there is a Victorian brass clockwork one in the collection, if you've always found striking matches too taxing, someone in the 1920s invented an automated self-striking match box to save you the trouble. Fascinating and humorous Eccentric Contraptions will intrigue and amuse, and is a testament to human ingenuity and resourcefulness.